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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]College admissions in the US is not the gaokao and it shouldn't be.  Testing is not everything and even the Chinese and Koreans and Japanese are debating how to reduce their reliance on college admissions testing because it stifles creativity and ignores the multiple sources of excellence.

As a first generation Chinese-American with two Ivy degrees, I am just fed up with the whining about admissions to the Ivies. There are simply no race based quotas. Since only 1 percent of college students can go to an Ivy, the debate is largely inconsequential to improving the life options of Asian Americans. Fight the discrimination that affects the other 99%.

After interviewing scores of applicants, it is pretty obvious that there are lots of students with good grades who test well, but have almost nothing else.  The profiles are often remarkably similar: math/science excellence, limited intellectual depth in literature and the arts, few ECs besides classical music training and occasionally individual sports like golf or tennis. Worse, they present themselves as pretty ho-hum with no passion or excitement for learning. It is as if their parents are all reading from the same book on how to raise a child who gets in to Harvard.

Another thing to remember is that the Ivies are all liberal arts colleges! A hugely disproportionate share of Asian-American applicants are in the STEM fields. Since Harvard is choosing students to fill all its majors, Asians are largely competing against other math and science students applying to Harvard, not the historians, lit majors, artists, or football players.  Which also means they are largely competing against themselves.  That is why the test scores look skewed and why the admission rates are lower. Caltech does not need to find students to fill its philosophy department, while Harvard does.

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[b]The bottom line is this:  if you took all the names off the college applications so that the admissions directors could not tell what race an applicant is, way way more asians would be getting accepted.[/b]  So all your arguing that it's because asians only have good grades and test scores, that they have fewer ECs, no sports... none of that is relevant because it is already being taken into consideration in the admissions process.  Nobody is just comparing test scores and we understand that.  And nobody is complaining that only test scores and gpa's should count.  We are comparing EVERYTHING.  What is happening is that an asian applicant with the same credentials including ECs, leadership ability... is not getting in just because they're asian (or they need above and beyond other races to get accepted).  Why is that so hard to understand?  I hate to stereotype but YOU really sound like an asian that must have only had good grades and not much of anything else including common sense.  Maybe back when you went to ivy, it wasn't so competitive for asians to get in. [/quote]

Says you.  how about taking the sex off the application as well since sometimes girls have a more difficult time getting into certain elite U's.  Harvard is a private university and should accept who they see fit..  Yes, they make use of public money, but with their reputation and endowment they could likely make it without. I'm with PP.  Stop whining -- either show them why you're so unique in your achievements they can't turn you away or go somewhere else and make them sorry -- that should be the mantra for kids of ALL backgrounds.  There are a lot of routes to success for the hardworking and resourceful in this country. This isn't Brown v. Topeka denying an underprivileged minority the basic right of equal and unsegregated schooling.

Interesting, btw, the difference a generation or so makes.  In Guey Heung Lee v. Johnson in 1971, it was Chinese Americans battling to keep San Francisco [i]public[/i] school segregated so Chinese students would not lose touch with their heritage...
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